


indigo

by changbinnies



Series: you’re my rainbow [6]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Fluff, LOTS of cameos from other groups as daycare children, M/M, Slow Burn, changbin’s lil sis is a sneaky gal, daycare worker!hyunjin, everyone else is barely mentioned - Freeform, longest thing ive ever written sorry if it’s bs, new kid!changbin, this is big slow burn energy i’m sorry, tiny bit of angst??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 03:04:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18379640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/changbinnies/pseuds/changbinnies
Summary: changbin tries to stay afloat while juggling a new school, a new home, and hyunjin.





	indigo

**Author's Note:**

> she’s a doozy ladies and gents. thank you for being patient with this tho!! pls enjoy the result of constant self doubt and writer’s block :P
> 
> (beta-d by the lovely @thebigolive , my best friend & soulmate. check her works out !!)

indigo (n): sincerity, devotion, truth, pride, focus

•

It’s the third time the Seo family has moved in the last two years, and to be honest, Changbin’s kind of sick of it.

He’s _really_ sick of it.

There’s nothing much to do on a seven-hour car ride. Granted, there are only two hours remaining, but Changbin finished his book way too long ago and the rest are in the moving trailer hooked onto the family minivan. He’s given up on being entertained by his phone; it just gives him a headache as the minivan rattles down the torn-up freeway.

So he’s turned to just staring out of the window. He wishes it were summer. Or fall. Anything but winter, honestly, because it’s that time of winter when the snow stops and everything just looks sad.

The snow on the side of the freeway is blackened-brown from the nasty oil residue on the underside of cars, the trees are all naked and cold, and the clouds are gray. It’s not even sunny, which just brings Changbin’s mood down even more.

His five year old sister, Hyunjoo, snoozes away in her little booster seat buckled in to the seat to his left. Her favorite llama stuffed animal is resting in her tiny hands, tucked into her chest. Changbin smiles, quietly takes a photo of her, and looks back out of the window.

In the front seat, his dad has been driving since he switched out with him two hours ago. He’s discussing the enrollment process of Hyunjoo’s new daycare center with his mom over the soft chatter of the radio, and Changbin _really_ doesn’t want to think about new enrollment processes, or anything that has to do with moving, really, so he turns the volume on his headphones just a bit higher.

After an hour of mindlessly watching the trees whizz by at seventy-five miles an hour, his dad pulls over at a rest area and hops off the car.

“Bin,” his mom calls, turning around from her seat to look at Changbin.

Changbin, exhausted from his small nap he took earlier, rubs his eyes and pulls out an earbud. “Yeah?” His voice is laced with annoyance, but his mom still smiles brightly, and he immediately feels bad.

“I know you’re sick of all this moving. We are too, trust me. But dad’s job is actually secure this time. This company won’t go bankrupt any time soon,” she comments with a sad laugh. “You’ll finish high school here, Hyunjoo will start school next year, and everything’s gonna be okay.” She looks at him with a face of pity and Changbin kind of dislikes it. A lot.

He nods slowly. “Thanks.”

To be honest, he had given up on trying to constantly fit in to a new environment last time they moved, and the prospect of actually _having_ to do so makes him uneasy. But he supposes he’ll try, if only for the sanity of his parents.

Thankfully, before his runaway thoughts can take over his mind again, his dad climbs back into the car and the minivan is on the freeway once more.

Changbin hopes that this time, what his mom says is true, and he won’t be treated like the cardboard boxes in the trailer, thrown around from city to city.

•

“Jisung, will you get the tissues for Youngjae? Also, Jihoo needs a diaper change,” Hyunjin calls from where he’s sitting on a couch, trying to console a sobbing Sunwoo.

“Yeah,” his best friend since elementary school calls back, rolling the toy truck back to Chaeyoung, grabbing the box of tissues off the shelf and handing it to Youngjae, and picking up baby Jihoo all at lightning speed.

Hyunjin grins, patting the soft barely-there hair on Sunwoo’s head. This is why his aunt and uncle had hired Jisung, all sunny smiles and quick hands and a caring heart.

Every day, the doors to _Golden Smiles Daycare_ (a bad pun, really, because Hwang means golden and his uncle thinks his dad jokes are superior) are opened at seven thirty in the morning and until Hyunjin and Jisung get out of school, Hyunjin’s aunt and uncle watch the daycare. They both have other part-time jobs, though, and Hyunjin’s parents both work nine-to-five office jobs, so the two boys take over from three to six in the afternoon.

They’ve got a nice system going. His aunt and uncle have time to focus on their other jobs, his parents don’t have to worry about the daycare, and he and Jisung get paid.

He and Jisung also get to look over children for three hours a day, which, while exhausting at some points, is also loads of fun. (While working here, Hyunjin’s learned how to change diapers, stop screaming and crying babies, and clean up vomit. Loads of fun!)

“Oh, that was a stinky one, wasn’t it, baby!” Jisung coos as he leads Jihoo away from the baby changing station, effectively shaking Hyunjin out of his little reverie. Sunwoo has just been sniffling, and Hyunjin wait until that subsides before setting him on the ground and accompanying him by the giant lego blocks.

They’re in the middle of building a giant who-knows-what—Sunwoo tends to go wild with the giant lego blocks—when Hyunjin looks around to make sure the other kids are doing okay. “Hyungseo, wanna come play with us?” cheers Hyunjin, coaxing the shy boy out of the corner.

Soon enough, parents begin trickling in and Jisung hops up to check their children out. It’s 5:23, around the time most of the little rascals leave, and Hyunjin entertains Sunwoo and Hyungseo until their parents also arrive. The hour hits, and Hyunjin takes a drink out of the water fountain before surveying the area. There are toys out of place, bean bags strewn across the floor, and cheerios littered by the eating area. Loads of fun, remember!

At least Jisung has gotten better at organizing and cleaning.

•

Changbin is only allowed one day to adjust to the new house, neighborhood, and town before he’s being forced to leave the house at 7:15 every morning to go drop Hyunjoo off and go to school.

Even though he’s going to be a junior (he’s old enough to be a senior but the enrollment rules were funny about age placement), he has to take the public bus to school. His dad generously let his mom take the car to work, and he takes the public bus to work, also.

It could be worse, he supposes, standing at the bus stop with Hyunjoo’s little hand cradled in his.

They step off of the bus six stops and fifteen minutes later and into the chilly January morning air. Hyunjoo tugs her hat down further on her head, cuddling in to Changbin’s side despite her puffy pink jacket shielding her from the cold.

“Give me a second, sis,” Changbin mutters as he pulls out his phone and enters _Golden Smiles Daycare_ into the maps. His hits “start” and begins walking, hand turning red and freezing up around his phone.

After two rights and a left, Hyunjoo has let go of his hand to excitedly grab onto her backpack straps. Her sparkly, pink backpack with Hello Kitty all over it. Changbin thinks it’s adorable, but he’d never say that out loud. She suddenly all but sprints towards the door, and Changbin yells after her, running and almost tripping on the ice. Embarrassing. Whatever.

He enters the daycare after Hyunjoo, pausing to catch his breath, and ends up admiring the inside. The walls are painted pastel yellow, art pieces of rainbows and birds and flowers hang from the ceiling, the check-in desk is painted a light blue, cute toys lay behind the glass doors to the play area, and Changbin suddenly feels _very_ out of place in his black puffy jacket, dark wash ripped jeans, and black vans.

“Hello! You must be Hyunjoo?” a middle-aged woman asks from behind the check-in desk, pushing up her glasses and grabbing a clipboard as Hyunjoo bounces up to her.

“Yes,” Changbin answers, still feeling like he doesn’t belong inside this building of bright colors and happiness. “This is Seo Hyunjoo.”

“Awesome!” the woman smiles. “I’m Mrs. Hwang, the owner of this daycare. And what’s your name?” She gestures to Changbin and he shrinks into himself. Even the clothes she’s wearing match the daycare; a light orange cardigan over a white t-shirt that says “plants are friends” under a row of succulents.

“I’m Changbin, her older brother. Um—I’ll be dropping her off and picking her up every weekday,” he answers, shoving his hands in his pocket. Another family lines up behind him and he just wants to be done with this whole check-in process.

Mrs. Hwang scribbles some stuff down on her clipboard—which Changbin is just noticing is covered in drawings of flowers—before asking, “Around what time will you be picking her up?”

“Three thirty? Maybe?” he mutters, grabbing a hold of Hyunjoo’s arm before she dashes off into the play area by herself. She’s got too much energy, and Changbin will never understand how she’s excited about moving to new places.

“Alright, thank you Changbin-ssi!” Mrs. Hwang grins. “You can just take Hyunjoo into the room back there—” she points at the glass doors, “—and put her coat and backpack in the labeled areas! My nephew will be here in the afternoon with his friend to help you check her out.” And with that, she moves on to the next family.

•

“A new friend!” Jisung cheers loudly as he opens the doors to the play area a few minutes before three in the afternoon. Kids are in all corners of the room, playing cars with Uncle Hwang and playing catch with Auntie Hwang. At the sound of Jisung’s voice, children run towards him and Hyunjin and hug their legs, accompanied by a chorus of “hyungs!” and “oppas!”

Hyunjin laughs, patting the children on their heads as he glances around. Sure enough, a small girl, one he doesn’t recognize, wearing a pretty white headband and a blue sweater, puts down her book and joins the commotion.

“That’s Seo Hyunjoo,” his aunt says from his side. “Her family just moved here this week and her information is on the clipboard! You know what to do.” She waves at the crowd of children by the door, smiling and giving out high-fives. “Bye kids!” she says, grabbing her purse from the hooks behind the door as she and her husband leave.

“Bye Auntie and Uncle Hwang!” they respond, over ten-times louder than necessary.

“Alright, kids, let’s get back inside!” Hyunjin laughs, guiding them away from the door as Jisung heads to the front desk for Hyunjoo’s information.

Hyunjin barely has enough time to settle in when little Juyeon yells, “Hyunjin-hyung! Play catch with me!” bounding up to him with a small toy basketball.

“In a minute, kiddo!” Hyunjin answers, smiling down at the boy.

Picking up trash as he goes, he heads towards Hyunjoo, putting a big smile on his face. “Hi Hyunjoo!” he greets, crouching down and sticking his hand out for a high-five.

Hyunjoo, instead of returning the high-five, puts down her book and barrels her little body straight into Hyunjin’s in a big (little) hug. “Hello!” she yells into his shoulder. “What’s your name?”

Hyunjin envelops her in his arms before pulling away and fixing her hair. “My name is Hyunjin, and that—” he points at Jisung, walking in the doors, “—is Jisung! You can call us both oppa.”

Hyunjoo waves to Jisung, who grins back as he walks towards them. “Cool! Now I have three older brothers,” she gushes.

Hyunjin is just about to ask about her older brother, a great conversation starter for new children, when Jisung cuts in.

“She’s got no food allergies, her backpack is pink with Hello Kitty on it, and her older brother Changbin is set to pick her up around three thirty every day,” he says, sitting cross-legged by Hyunjin. Hyunjin nods, filing the information away in his head.

“I don’t think she needs help adjusting,” he notes with a laugh. Hyunjoo, the ever-so-energetic little girl, seemed to have been bouncing from one child to the next, and has such proper manners that even Hyunjin is slightly ashamed of himself.

“Hi Jisung-oppa!” Hyunjoo greets, giving him an equally aggressive hug. (Jisung almost falls over.) Jisung goes to greet her back but she’s already distracted by the talk about her brother and begins rambling about him. “Changbin-oppa is so cool,” she says, eyes wide and smiling. “He wears really cool clothes and does music stuff! He also always plays with me when I need someone to help me play house with my stuffed animals.”

Hyunjin laughs. “He seems like a very nice boy,” he remarks, standing up and heading back toward Juyeon.

“He is,” Hyunjoo answers proudly, before kindly asking Jisung to read her book with her.

•

Changbin always dreads the first day of school.

Okay, it’s not the first day of school. It’s _his_ first day of school. Here. He’s had too many of these.

It’s unnerving, having to stand in front of a classroom six (!) times and be introduced by the teacher. Thank _God_ this new school isn’t a uniform school, but he still feels judged under his dark getup.

He makes sure to avoid as much social interaction as possible, eating lunch in the library and not talking during class. As sure as he is that the people here are all relatively nice, he doesn’t want to be the weird new kid trying to shove himself into random friend groups.

So he goes the entire first day without talking to any students, save for the kind, blonde, dimpled boy who made a bit of small talk during third period, and walks—alone with his music—to the bus stop.

The freezing air bites at Changbin’s face as he zips his jacket up and crosses his arms. His backpack, full of new textbooks he had to borrow today, weighs him down as he makes the five minute trudge to the bus stop.

There’s an old woman already sitting there, as well as a boy who seems to be in college. Changbin pointedly avoids them.

After seven minutes of waiting in the cold and opening and closing his fists in his pockets to keep them _alive—_ he left his gloves on the kitchen island by accident—the bus screeches to a stop by the curb. He lets the woman and boy walk on first before enjoying the heating of the bus.

Changbin swipes his card, mutters a “thank you,” and looks up. It’s full, obviously, since school just let out, but he can’t hide the disappointment on his face. He walks near the end of the bus, grabbing onto the nearest pole and trying to not think about the sheer amount of germs living on it.

There’s honestly nothing for Changbin to do, besides enjoy his music. He has no one to text, no books to read, no view to enjoy, so he focuses on maintaining his balance as the bus rolls down the pothole-ridden road.

He gets through three songs and a half before the bus reaches his stop, a short walk to the daycare center. Honestly, this should be his parents’ job, but the center is out of the way from his dad’s work and his mom is too busy getting everything settled at the house. So naturally, Changbin takes this task.

He shouldn’t complain, though. It gives him something to do after school.

The bell above the door tinkles cutely, something he hadn’t noticed this morning probably due to Hyunjoo sprinting away from him, and he’s immediately enveloped by the muffled sound of children running and screaming giddily inside.

Mrs. Hwang’s nephew and his friend must not see his arrival, but he doesn’t mind, instead opting to lean against the front desk and look at the hanging art pieces. They’re drawn with the innocence only a small child can have, and Changbin finds himself smiling at a particularly cute and artistic rendition of what seems to be a parrot.

With his black cap and black vans on, he still seems out of place—but shocker! He wore light wash jeans today, in his own somewhat twisted way to convince himself that maybe, _just maybe,_ he’ll fit in a little more.

(That would be a good song. Emo boy wears light wash jeans to try to be normal. That one’s funny.)

He’s in the middle of debating on whether or not to take a picture of the parrot art piece—it’s just so _cute_ —when the door to the play area all but _flies_ open and a tall boy, at least six feet, stumbles into the lobby.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there. I hope you weren’t waiting long?” he breathes out in a rush. He stands up straight and runs a hand through his hair.

Changbin’s first reaction is bitterness because, _he definitely looks younger than me. Who let him be that tall?_

But his second reaction is shock because, _I’ve never seen a more beautiful human_ , and immediately his fight-or-flight response kicks in except he only knows how to fly ever since he quit self-defense lessons in fourth grade. Oh God.

“Uh, no, it’s fine,” he mumbles, looking away. “I’m here for Seo Hyunjoo.”

“I know!” the boy responds brightly, as if that isn’t the slightest bit strange or creepy. “I’m Mr. and Mrs. Hwang’s nephew, Hyunjin! You must be Changbin-ssi, right?”

Changbin just nods, not trusting himself to talk. He’ll just make a complete fool out of himself.

Hyunjin hums a song to himself as he checks some things off of a paper clipped to the flower-covered clipboard, before turning around towards the play area. Hyunjoo is literally just standing inside the door, watching Changbin and Hyunjin interact. Changbin watches with an eyebrow raised as Hyunjin opens the door, saying “Hyunjoo, you know you can walk out, baby?”

Changbin turns his reddening face away at the sudden idea of Hyunjin calling him baby. Terrible.

“Oh!” Hyunjoo squeals. “I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to ask Jisung-oppa because he was too busy.”

Hyunjin grabs her jacket, crouches to helps her put it on, and grabs her backpack also. “Your sister is very cute,” he giggles as he stands up. “Very well-mannered, too.”

“I—uh. Thanks,” Changbin answers, slightly distracted by how _cute_ his giggle was _._  Hyunjin smiles in response.

“You guys just moved here, right?” he asks. Which is an extremely normal question to ask to a newcomer, but Changbin still hates this. Why is he stuck here making small talk with this pretty boy named Hyunjin? And to think he was planning on not complaining about picking Hyunjoo up.

“Yeah. We settled in two days ago.” To his right, Hyunjoo nods enthusiastically, eliciting _more_ giggles from Hyunjin. He’s gotta make her stop doing that.

“Do you attend Seoul City Public High School?” Hyunjin continues, seemingly unaware that this conversation is the last thing Changbin wants to be put through. He can’t even look in Hyunjin’s eyes while he talks, goddamnit. He just ends up staring at his adorable fluffy pink turtleneck, which is probably even more creepy.

“Yeah, I’m a junior, but I’m eighteen.”

 _God_ , why is giving away information like this? He has to go. Now.

“Me too!” Hyunjin smiles. “So is my best friend over there, Jisung. We’re both seventeen. You should come say hi sometime! Eat lunch with us!”

Changbin literally… does not know what to say. He can’t say no, like he wants to, because that would be rude and his parents didn’t raise him like that. He can’t say that he’ll consider it, because he honestly won’t (there’s no way a new kid like him is going to be sitting with Hyunjin and his probably equally beautiful friends), so he pauses for a second before saying, “Uh, sure,” a complete lie, before grabbing Hyunjoo’s hand and high-tailing it out of the door as quickly and discreetly as possible.

•

“I’m impressed. You actually _didn’t_ flirt with him?”

“Jisung,” Hyunjin groans. “I’m telling you! He’s the one!”

Jisung takes a sip of his coffee, looking unamused. “You met him today. For five minutes. He fucking ran away from you!”

Hyunjin bites into his scone aggressively. “That’s not the point!” he mumbles around the food. He realizes that this banter probably isn’t appropriate for the setting—a calm, family owned coffee shop—but this is important business that needs to be discussed! “Just watch, Jisung. I’m going to make him fall head over heels for me.”

Jisung finishes his coffee, wiping his mouth off with a napkin. “It sounds like you already have,” he remarks. “If he can’t handle even being around you, imagine what how he would react if you actually flirted with him.”

Hyunjin can imagine it. It would probably be really adorable. “Tomorrow!” he says with optimism. “I’ll drop a subtle hint tomorrow. It’ll work.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then he’s straight. I don’t _know_ , Jisung! You know I don’t think negatively. I live on the edge. Take chances.”

“Jinnie, you almost dropped out of AP World History after two weeks.”

“That’s different.”

•

“Binnie-oppa, you didn’t even let me say bye to Hyunjin-oppa and Jisung-oppa!” Hyunjoo says as the two ride the bus back home. There had only been one open seat, so Hyunjoo’s sitting on Changbin’s lap while swinging her tiny legs back and forth.

“Sorry bud, I—” Changbin begins. He doesn’t even have a valid excuse to tell Hyunjoo. “—I have a lot of homework?”

Hyunjoo tilts her head. “It was your first day today,” she notes, turning to look at him with her ever-present smile on her face. (Maybe Changbin should learn from her in that aspect.)

Changbin just ruffles her hair and hands her an earbud and plays Day6, her favorite ever band. He pulls out his book and immerses himself in it, glad to see that the music has distracted Hyunjoo from the topic of Hyunjin, if only momentarily.

He says momentarily because the moment they step off of the bus and Hyunjoo grabs his hand, she pulls out the earbud and hands it back to Changbin. “Hyunjin-oppa goes to your school, right?” she asks innocently, swinging their hands and walking so giddily she’s almost skipping.

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

“You should be friends with him!” she exclaims, as if it’s the best idea she’s ever had. Changbin thinks it’s her worst, except maybe when she tried to dye her doll’s hair purple; that one did not go well. “He’s super pretty. If you’re friends with him, then he can come visit our house and I can show off to my friends how pretty he is!”

Changbin sees the appeal. But also doesn’t. “That sounds like a terrible idea, Hyunjoonie. I’m not going to befriend him just to you can show him off. Besides, don’t the kids at the daycare already know who he is?” he argues, trying to logic out the situation.

Hyunjoo’s face falls. “You’re right…” Changbin smirks. “OR! You could date him, and then I can tell all the kids that Hyunjin-oppa’s your boyfriend!”

Changbin’s smirk is replaced with a blank face. “That sounds like an even more terrible idea. No, thank you.” He takes sudden interest in the birds flying around the public park they just walked by, less than a block away from their new house.

Hyunjoo huffs. “I think it’s an excellent idea. Plus, he seemed to like you.”

Changbin starts speed-walking, and Hyunjoo has to take extra quick steps to match his longer, but probably (definitely) not as long as Hyunjin’s, strides. “And what would _you_ know about liking people?” he asks, rounding the corner to their neighborhood.

Hyunjoo, realizing she doesn’t have a counterargument, just giggles and runs inside the front door.

•

It’s three twenty when Hyunjin, busy comforting a crying Yeji to sleep, remembers what he told Jisung the day before. “Jisung,” he whispers, looking at the boy entertaining four kids at once. Amazing. “Subtle hint today! I’m gonna do it.”

Jisung laughs. “‘He’s the one!’” he mocks, and Hyunjin, who loves his best friend a lot, thank you very much, has the sudden urge to throw a giant lego block at his head.

The funny thing, though, is that when three thirty hits, a middle-aged woman walks in the front door instead of a high school boy. Both Hyunjin and Jisung watch with shock as Hyunjoo runs out of the play area, gives the woman a fierce hug, and grabs her jacket and backpack.

Jisung stifles a laugh from where he’s cradling Yeonjun. “He chickened out!”

Hyunjin just glares at him as he sets Yeji down into a crib and leaves to check Hyunjoo out. When he leaves the play area, he can already hear Hyunjoo excitedly telling the woman about the drawings they did today, and how “my art piece is gonna be hung up soon!” Hyunjin smiles to himself. He’s busy writing down the time on the clipboard when he hears, “you must be Hyunjin, right?” and his head whips up.

“Yeah! That’s me. How…?”

The woman laughs, covering her face. “Hyunjoo tells me all about you and Jisung at home! She seems to love it here.” Hyunjoo, who was walking in circles while watching her feet, stops and looks up at Hyunjin to nod. “My son Changbin also mentioned you guys.”

Hyunjin nods, mind blank. “Uh, excuse me for asking, but where is he?” He hopes he only sounds half as concerned as he really is.

A worried expression immediately crosses over Mrs. Seo’s face, and Hyunjin immediately feels bad for asking. “He told me he wasn’t feeling well after school. Probably because he didn’t wear a hat or scarf while walking here yesterday,” she says, pursing her lips.

“Ah, well, tell him I hope he feels better, alright?” he responds.

“Yes! I will!” Hyunjoo answers instead. Hyunjin just ruffles her hair and sees them out the door.

It seems that Hyunjin can’t hide the disappointment on his face when he walks back into the play area, seeing as Sangyeon, the oldest child, runs up to him and asks, “What’s wrong, hyung?”

What’s wrong? What’s wrong is that Hyunjin had a good flirty line prepared! He was gonna sweep Changbin off of his feet! But now Changbin is sick! That’s what’s wrong!

“Nothing, little bud,” he sighs instead, smiling. “Just a little tired.”

Sangyeon frowns. “Sorry you can’t fit in any of the baby cribs,” he says, before returning to the puzzle he was working on.

Three hours later, when Hyunjin and Jisung finally finish up cleaning the area and washing out paint brushes and wiping down the sink, Hyunjin grabs a large, dark blue bean bag from the pile sitting neatly in the corner and throws it in the open before flopping on it.

“Damnit, Jinnie,” Jisung complains, no real bite in his voice. “I just put those away.”

Hyunjin, choosing to ignore him, just rolls onto his stomach. “Jisung, he hates me!” he whines.

Jisung grabs a pink bean bag from the pile anyway and sits next to Hyunjin, patting his hair and combing his fingers through it. “Jin, don’t be ridiculous. His mom told you he was sick.”

“Stop being right,” Hyunjin mutters, poking at Jisung’s wrist. “He was at school today and I saw him walking before lunch. We made eye contact! And you know what happened? I smiled at him and he put his head down and sped into the library.”

Jisung giggles, ruffling Hyunjin’s hair into a bird’s nest. A really frowzy bird’s nest. “He thinks you’re cute.”

Hyunjin just glares.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Jisung concedes. “You want someone to like you for your personality and not just for your _outstanding beauty._ ” His last two words drip with sarcasm.

Hyunjin can’t really fight Jisung from where he’s laying awkwardly, trying to fit six feet of himself on a kid-sized bean bag, so he settles for mindlessly waving his hand in Jisung’s direction and hoping that he’ll hit him somehow. “Shut it.”

•

Changbin’s feeling okay enough to go to school for the rest of the week, but he doesn’t go to the daycare to pick Hyunjoo up.

Hyunjin probably has noticed, since he somehow began looking for Changbin at lunch, who just avoids eye contact as he opens the heavy doors to the library.

Changbin refuses to give in though, still only talking to the nice boy in third period, Bang Chan, and not stepping foot into the daycare.

He doesn’t go in on Thursday, Friday, or even the Monday after that, even though his cold is completely gone—his mom had gotten into a habit of picking Hyunjoo up so Changbin just takes the bus straight home after school.

It works fine until it doesn’t.

That week, on Thursday, his mom scheduled for a mechanic to come in to install a new bathroom sink, conveniently at three in the afternoon, and Changbin has never hated anything more.

He supposes that he was going to have to return to the daycare eventually, that his mom being busy at three thirty one day was inevitable, that he should maybe take more responsibility instead of burdening his mother, but he’s still uneasy.

So when school is let out at a quarter to three, Changbin shrugs his jacket on, along with his (cool looking) beanie that his mom insisted he wear, and trudges outside. He crosses the parking lot, filled with juniors and seniors closing and opening car doors and cleaning the snow off of car hoods. Taking deliberate footsteps as to not ruin his white (wow!) converse, Changbin tunes the world out with his music. There may be a muffled “Changbin-hyung!” coming from behind him somewhere, but Changbin _really_ does not want to see Hyunjin right now and turns his music up.

Of course, Hyunjin drives to the daycare to get there on time for his shift, and Changbin is left envying him as he swipes his bus card and takes a seat near the middle. He has half a mind to ask Hyunjin for a ride to the daycare, if only to avoid the blistering cold walk to the bus stop, but decides his dignity is much more worth it.

Changbin slowly opens the doors to the daycare at three thirty-six, as late as he could arrive without seeming like someone had forgotten his sister. Honestly, it may not have been worth it, seeing as he _really_ took his time walking from the bus stop to the daycar _e,_  but anything to avoid seeing Hyunjin.

Changbin breathes in the warm air, rubbing his hands together to stay warm. There are new paintings hung up, and he quickly spots Hyunjoo’s llama painting with her adorable signature taking up a sizable portion of the bottom right corner. He’s in the middle of taking a photo of it to send to his mom when Jisung pushes the doors to the play area open, followed by Hyunjoo clutching onto her favorite llama stuffed animal.

“Hello, Changbin-hyung,” Jisung greets kindly, beginning to check Hyunjoo out. She runs to Changbin and gives him her obligatory “thanks for picking me up!” hug.

“Hey. Jisung, right?” he asks, trying to discreetly look for Hyunjin behind the doors.

Jisung sets the clipboard down and helps Hyunjoo into her coat. “Yup! That’s me. Hyunjin’s best friend. Which reminds me. Where have you been?”

Changbin blinks dumbly. “At home. Sick.” _Definitely_ not _avoiding Hyunjin._

Jisung nods slowly. “Sure… Chan-hyung told me your cold went away last weekend. You’re not avoiding Hyunjin, are you?”

Changbin feels himself flush, embarrassed that Jisung could immediately tell what was going on. “N-No, of course not,” he mutters. But Jisung’s smile looks so happy and kind that he ends up admitting, “maybe.”

“Your sister’s starting to grow on Hyunjin a lot, you know?” Jisung notes, voice laced with fondness as he watches Hyunjoo hug her llama. Thank God he doesn’t make fun of Changbin for avoiding Hyunjin. “His favorite animal is a llama.”

Changbin files that information away. For what, he doesn’t know. Maybe it’ll be important one day.

“He told me he can’t sleep without his own stuffed animal llama!” Hyunjoo interjects helpfully, and Changbin wants to _run._ Because he can’t sleep without his stuffed Munchlax either, and the image of Hyunjin falling asleep while hugging a stuffed llama is too cute for Changbin to handle.

Jisung laughs loudly, shaking his head. “It’s true,” he giggles. “Hyunjin’s kind of a baby.”

 _THANKS,_ Changbin’s mind yells. _This is exactly what I didn’t come here for._

“Oh!” Jisung perks up. “Chan-hyung says you kinda hang along at school. You should come sit with Hyunjin and my friends and I at lunch! Chan-hyung sits with us, too.”

“Ah, Hyunjin already offered,” Changbin says slowly, phrasing his next sentence carefully. “I, uh, probably wouldn’t fit in with you guys.”

Jisung tilts his head and furrows his eyebrows. “From what Chan-hyung tells me, you’re a really cool guy! Don’t feel pressured to sit with us, though. Just know that the offer’s open.”

Changbin takes the tone of finality as the end of the conversation and simply responds with a “thank you” before leading Hyunjoo out of the daycare—not before she can say her goodbyes, though.

The entire bus ride back, Changbin can’t think of anything besides Hyunjin hugging his stuffed llama to sleep. Screw Hyunjoo for telling him that, honestly.

•

“ _Please_ , Jinnie. He’s so into you, it’s disgusting!” Jisung mumbles around his bite of chocolate cheesecake.

Hyunjin fiddles with the handle of his mug of hot chocolate. “You’re lying,” he concludes, even though Jisung has evidence to support his own claim while Hyunjin has none at all.

They should really stop meeting up at this coffee shop to argue over whether Changbin is into Hyunjin or not, but Hyunjin needs his brain fuel. He devours half of his scone in one large bite. “He seems scared of me. He won’t even look at me during school!”

Jisung throws his arms up into the air, absolutely exasperated. “Are you being _serious?_ ” he hisses. A few other customers turn towards the sound and Jisung shrinks into himself. “Jinnie. You’re the high school’s heartthrob! I feel like out of anyone, _you_ should be able to tell when someone likes you.” Jisung crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows. Hyunjin almost giggles because he’s trying to act all serious, but Jisung? Serious? That’s a funny joke!

Hyunjin doesn’t giggle, though, because Jisung actually has a point. (Wowza.) “I suppose you’re right,” he admits, frowning at the remaining half of his scone. His stomach grumbles. Should he buy another?

“I know I am,” Jisung answers, taking another bite of his cheesecake. “Next time he comes to pick Hyunjoo up, I’ll take care of whatever kids you’ve got. Even if it’s crying and screaming Changmin. I could _feel_ him looking for you.”

Hyunjin’s eyes light up. “Really?” he asks, voice full of disbelief. “Jisung, you’re the _best._ This is why I’m friends with you!”

(Right now, Hyunjin would just like to point out that this statement is very false. Hyunjin is friends with Jisung because when the Hwang family first moved into where they live now years ago, Jisung had kicked his soccer ball into the road and almost ran straight into the stopped car. The rest, as they say, is history.)

“Yeah, right,” Jisung rolls his eyes. “You just go do your wooing or whatever it is that you pretty boys do.”

“Jisung,” Hyunjin whines, sticking his lower lip out. “You’re a pretty boy too! Don’t say stuff like that.” He finishes off his scone, frowning at Jisung. Hyunjin isn’t the slightest bit surprised when Jisung simply bats his eyelashes, though.

“Oh!” Jisung suddenly says, eyes widening. “Did you know that Changbin-hyung does music production, too? He produces, writes lyrics, sings, _and_ raps. Chan-hyung told me!”

Aaaand that is Hyunjin’s cue to leave the stage. “You’re kidding,” he blanches, “That’s unfair. There’s no way—he does all that? He’s that cool?” Hyunjin throws his head in his hands. “Great. He’ll never like me. All I can do is dance.” He starts kicking Jisung’s legs underneath the table.

“Gosh, Jinnie, what’s that for?” Jisung yelps, although he definitely seems to be enjoying his best friend’s mental breakdown. “Ha. What if I asked him to work with Chan-hyung and me?”

Hyunjin whips his head up so quickly that he feels the back of his neck strain a tiny bit. Jisung’s got this scary, conspiring smile on his face, and Hyunjin wants no more than to take his napkin and wipe that expression off. “You don’t get to befriend him before I do!” he whines petulantly.

“Stop me,” Jisung retorts back, knowing damn well that Hyunjin may be just a _little_ nervous about talking to Changbin. A _little_.

•

_Binnie, please pick up Hyunjoo today! Mom has an appointment with our new doctor here. Thank you._

_Dad :-)_

Changbin picks up the sticky note, debating on crushing it within his fist. Maybe that would be too edgy. He doesn’t know. He’s trying to change his concept, and he’s not sure if it’s working.

But, really? His Friday morning had been going great—he and Hyunjoo woke up on time, he prepared himself and Hyunjoo good lunches (ones that he was quite excited about, actually), _and_ Chan had somehow gotten his number to talk about music production. That last one may have been Jisung’s doing, but _still._ He’s making friends! Mom would be proud.

Changbin ends up just folding the sticky note into quarters, tossing it into the recycling bin by the front door. He grabs his wallet and phone, and, happy with his outfit—a Coca Cola graphic tee, light gray joggers, and black vans—helps Hyunjoo with her things before heading out the door.

Four hours later during the late lunch period, Changbin is heading to his locker to grab his lunch box and retreat to the couches in the library. He’s a few meters away when he sees Chan and Jisung round the corner, preparing to pass him on the way to the cafeteria. Changbin starts walking just the tiniest bit faster, keeping his head down.

“Changbinnie!” Chan still calls, waving excitedly as his blonde curls bounce up and down.

“Uh, hey,” Changbin responds, freezing. He tightens his grip on his lunch box, knowing that Chan is about to ask him to join them for lunch. And honestly, if he could, he would politely decline, but he and Chan had been texting all day during class ( _during class! Who knew Chan was such a rebel._ ) about music production and now Chan probably considers them friends.

Changbin supposes he would consider them friends, too. Ah.

“Is the offer for eating with you guys at lunch still open?” he asks, surprising himself. He chalks it up to him being determined to not be as awkward as on the first day of school. Chan looks equally surprised, but Jisung hurriedly answers.

“Of course! The offer’s always open for you, Changbin-hyung,” he responds cheekily. Changbin just scratches the back of his head and falls in step with the two boys to their lunch table.

As it turns out, Chan and his friends sit near the very back of the cafeteria, which means Changbin has to walk by hundreds of students (and feel naked under those hundreds of stares) before sitting down between the two. Coincidentally across from Hyunjin. He has a feeling Jisung is planning this kind of stuff.

Hyunjin is animatedly conversing with one of his friends next to him, a cute-looking junior with freckles and soft blonde hair, when he seems to notice the commotion of three boys setting their backpacks down. “Hey Jisung—” he begins, looking up, before his jaw drops. “Changbin-hyung?” Hyunjin almost lets go of his spoon.

“Hey Hyunjin,” Changbin responds, pulling out his Thermos and acting as calm as possible. He hates when pretty people look at him. To his left, Jisung pats his thigh as some sort of sign of reassurance.

Hyunjin takes another bite of his yogurt, examining Changbin’s face. Changbin shrinks a little. “What are you doi—Nevermind! I’m glad you’re here!” he grins, mouth stretching from ear to ear and eyes closing up into little moons. Changbin can feel his face heating up. (To reiterate his first ever thoughts about Hyunjin, _I’ve never seen a more beautiful human.)_

Chan introduces him to everyone very quickly, and it’s silly, but Changbin can’t help but feel like his earlier predictions about not fitting in were right. The five boys he just met, along with Jisung, Hyunjin, and Chan, are all so smiley and perfect-looking. That definitely wasn’t his thing earlier, but he figures that if he is going to spend the rest of high school with these boys, it’s a good thing he decided to change his image.

It’s easy to get lost in his thoughts, overwhelmed by the noise of hundreds of students eating lunch together. Changbin probably says no more than ten words the entire lunch period, content with just munching on his fried rice and watching his new friends(!) converse with each other.

At one point though, Hyunjin asks him if he drives to school, and if not, how does he get to the daycare? and is he picking up Hyunjoo today? and does he want a ride there?

“No; by bus; yes; ...uhhh,” are Changbin’s answers.

“‘Uhhh’?” Hyunjin repeats cutely, tilting his head. Changbin shoves a spoonful of rice in his mouth.

“Sure,” he mumbles around his food while also covering his mouth with his hand. He can feel Chan watching their interaction with amusement.

“What was that?”

“Sure.”

“Hyung, finish eating before you answer!”

“...Sure.”

Hyunjin’s eyes light up. “Cool! Meet me by the bus drop off loop after school! I drive a small red sedan, but I’ll wait outside for you.”

All Changbin can do in response is nod dumbly and keep eating his rice.

•

The drive to the shelter with Changbin is… strange, for lack of a better word.

Since Changbin put his bags in the back of Hyunjin’s car and climbed in the passenger seat, he hasn’t said a single word. Hyunjin drives carefully, Rad Museum playing softly in the background, not sure what to say. For the most part, Changbin seems content with just staring out of the window, and Hyunjin knows it’s only respectful to ask how his day was, how he was doing, et cetera. He doesn’t want to break the silence though, and besides, his favorite song is playing, so Hyunjin just focuses on the road ahead of him.

When Hyunjin parks the car, Changbin says quietly, “Thanks for the ride,” the first words he’s said to him since lunch. Hyunjin just hums in response.

Hyunjin sticks his hands into his jacket pockets, walking with a slight happy lilt towards the building. Changbin actually reaches the door first, though, and holds it open for him; Hyunjin pauses and looks at him before walking in, slightly flustered. He thanks Changbin, but his voice is so quiet he doubts even an owl could hear it.

He steps inside, immediately relaxing at the sight of the pastel yellow walls. Ever since he began working there, the daycare has always been a happy space for Hyunjin. A place to sort of get away from the stress of the near-adulting world. He glances at the clock out of habit.

“Ah,” he muses, pursing his lips. “You’re here half an hour early.”

“It’s okay,” Changbin quickly amends. “I’ll just, uh, wait until three thirty to take Hyunjoo home.” Now, Hyunjin may not be an expert in distinguishing between people’s facial expressions, but he’s almost one-hundred percent sure that Changbin is nervous. Adorable. Changbin easily could have taken Hyunjoo home early, but he didn’t! That’s gotta count for something, right, Jisung?

He can almost hear Jisung yelling at him to stop daydreaming and get to work, but chooses to ignore that in favor of secretly admire Changbin, whose admiring some of the new artwork hung up.

(Okay, scratch that. He wasn’t imagining Jisung’s voice.)

“Hwang, did you hear me? Sheesh,” Jisung groans from where his head is sticking out of the play area doors. Hyunjin rushes over, almost tripping over nothing (he blames his height, but still, that’s _so embarrassing_ ), and motions for Changbin to follow him.

Hyunjin walks in, Changbin behind him, immediately being crowded by some of the kids. “Bye auntie and uncle,” he says, while also greeting the children by his feet.

“Jinnie, hurry up and help me out here,” Jisung complains lightheartedly as Juyeon climbs on his back and Siyeon grabs his left arm and Hyunjoo his right.

Hyunjin giggles. “Nah, you’ve got it,” he grins, joining Changmin and Yeji instead. The two are messing around with the play kitchen set, putting fabric apples right in the microwave and plastic slices of bread in the sink. Jisung fakes a yell in agony as Juyeon throws his entire weight on him.

Suddenly, Hyunjoo releases her grasp on Jisung’s arm and sprints towards Changbin, wrapping her arms tightly around his midsection. “Hello, baby,” Hyunjin hears Changbin say, voice filled with fondness, and he turns red. Jisung snickers from across the room.

For the next few minutes, Hyunjin multitasks. And by multitasks, he means making sure Changmin and Yeji don’t hurt each other by accident with the plastic cooking utensils while also listening to Changbin and Hyunjoo talk. Yes, he admits, that’s kind of weird, but the conversation was too precious to pass up.

It went a little like this:

“Oppa, how’d you get here this early? It’s only three… o’seven!”

“I had Hyunjin drive me over.”

“Hyunjin-oppa!! Are you guys friends now?”

“I suppose? Yeah.”

“Oh! That means he can come over to our house, right?”

“Uh, if he wants? Hyunjoo, don’t get too crazy.”

“Or you could date him, remember? Heh.”

“ _Hyunjoo_. Don’t get too crazy.”

“Whatever, oppa. Come do this puzzle with me!”

“Alright.”

Jisung definitely also heard their conversation, because he’s watching Hyunjin with a knowing look on his face while Hyunjin fights down a smile.

Sadly, Changbin and Hyunjoo leave a few minutes after three thirty. If Hyunjin were not on the clock, he definitely would’ve offered them a ride home. Jisung would definitely make fun of him for that; Hyunjin’s talked to him no more than a handful of times and barely knows anything about him, and here he is, wanting to drive him home. The rest of the day goes by much quicker though, probably due to his elated mood. (Is that what drugs do to someone? Huh. Maybe Changbin is like a drug to Hyunjin. Hyunjin almost laughs out loud while cleaning up plastic bread slices. Ell-Oh-Ell.)

•

Changbin retreats to his room as soon as he takes Hyunjoo home, drowning face-down in his blankets and contemplating what just happened.

He wants to give Hyunjoo an earful for mentioning her whole date-Hyunjin-scheme in front of Hyunjin himself. It was inevitable, though, he supposes. Hyunjoo’s mouth never stops running.

But _still._ He had glanced at Hyunjin as quickly as possible, watching for his reaction to Hyunjoo’s proposition. His heart still flutters from the sight of Hyunjin’s ducked head and face breaking into a smile.

Aha. It’s been a while since someone made his heart flutter…

Changbin rolls over onto his back, hugging his stuffed Munchlax close to his chest. He stares up at the ceiling, plain white and void of the funny plastic glow-in-the-dark stars he had on his old ceiling since he was five years old, and forces himself to calm down. It’s only been a few weeks since his family moved here, even less since he met Hyunjin, and yet here he is, falling for a boy who’s definitely too pretty to be gay. Changbin can feel the frustration bubbling up in his throat, so he sits up, gently sits his plushy up against the pillow, and starts doing push-ups on the floor. His old friends back at home had always made fun of him for this, despite the fact that Changbin could probably write a five paragraph, single-spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font paper on how exercise relieves stress and releases endorphins. (Elle Woods said so. Don’t ask him why he knows that.) But Changbin also hates writing, so he won’t do that.

Three reps of twenty later, mind successfully off of Hyunjin being straight and instead on how sweaty his hair is, Changbin rinses his face in the bathroom and sits at his desk, opening his statistics textbook. He flips to the chapter on estimating true means from sample sizes using one sample t-scores (what the hell is that?) and loses himself in trying to decipher the picky language of the four-step process (again, what the hell is that?).

(Good thing he shares statistics, his third period, with Chan, who—after only a few days of sharing class with him—Changbin has concluded is the school’s resident golden child: excelling at every subject, kind to literally everyone he meets, involved in every extracurricular that exists, and always helping out in small ways around the school. Changbin can barely do any of those things, let alone also work on his music production, and feels a swell of pride in his chest that Chan, doing all of those things _while_ working on his own music, considers him a friend.)

Finally, an hour later, closing his textbook and homework notebook with an over dramatic sigh, Changbin completes his dreaded assignment. He picks up his phone, thrown halfway across the room in his efforts earlier to not be distracted, and scrolls through his notifications on the lock screen.

There are texts from his dad, follow requests from random kids at his school on Instagram, news headlines (another shooting? Changbin furrows his eyebrows and silently curses the stupid conservative rich lawmakers in power. _Assholes_.) and texts from Chan.

The first text notification is so long that all Changbin can read is “ _yo m8! hyunjin wanted to get ur number but i told him that he shouldn’t…”_ and he feels his heart sink a tiny bit, ignoring the other texts, so he distracts himself by clicking on the news article, despite knowing it will only make his heart sink more.

Point proven, because Changbin is almost in tears after reading the whole article and quickly texts Hyunjae, his friend from back home, an impassioned rant about the lack of universal gun control before exiting out of that message thread and looking at the main page of his messages app. There, mocking him, is the first portion of Chan’s text. Changbin stares at it back for a few seconds, somehow hoping it would disappear or something, before defeatedly clicking on it.

_“yo m8! hyunjin wanted to get ur number but i told him that he shouldn’t be a chicken by asking me for it_

_he’s struggling to find a “smooth way” to get ur number hehehe_

_he’s also reading this from behind my shoulder and yelling at me lskdjfsdfl gtg”_

Normally, this would make Changbin’s nerves settle a bit. But somehow, it only serves to make him even more nervous, and he doesn’t reply even though his read receipts are on.

“He wants to get my number?” he mutters to himself, pulling his legs up and sitting cross-legged on his comforter. He grabs his Munchlax again just for comfort. Changbin spends the next few minutes patting his Munchlax on the head and convincing himself that maybe, just _maybe_ , Hyunjin isn’t straight. Chan probably has the answer to that question, though.

Changbin pretends it’s his hate of leaving people on read rather than his itching need for the answer to that question and picks up his phone, slowly typing out a, “ _For friendship purposes, right?_

_Or what if he’s straight and just messing with me?_

_But he’s so nice he would never do that… Would he?”_

Changbin immediately regrets his decision, seeing as he ended up rambling stupidly to Chan, but figures that there’s no going back. As soon as the three dots pop up, Changbin swipes out of the thread and waits for Chan’s answer.

 _“changbin are u serious ,,,”_ sits there, unread with the blue dot floating to its left, followed by a, “ _i’m not saying that he doesn’t get a lot of interest from girls AND guys alike_

_but that’s irrelevant unless u haven’t noticed the heart eyes he gives you”_

Changbin turns off his phone. Chan, resident golden child who didn’t actually answer his question, is definitely spouting fake news, and Changbin has better things to do than getting his hopes up.

•

Over the next few weeks, Hyunjin can feel interest in Changbin growing more and more. Needless to say, though, Hyunjin also avoids Changbin like the plague for the next few weeks, determined to steer clear of confrontation about the whole getting-Changbin’s-number situation. (Chan spends these few weeks profusely apologizing to Hyunjin about “overstepping his boundaries” and “getting involved where he shouldn’t be,” but it’s not like anyone could ever be mad at Chan. Hyunjin’s doing this for his own good. He thinks.)

Jisung, despite how scatterbrained he can be sometimes, catches on after the third day in a row of Hyunjin pretending to be occupied when Changbin drops by the daycare to pick Hyunjoo up. He also stopped giving rides to Changbin after the getting-Changbin’s-number incident, but that was to be expected.

It’s gotten to the point where Mrs. Seo picks up Hyunjoo more often than not, but Hyunjin still makes Jisung help the family check out.

Honestly, Hyunjin thinks he’s being inconspicuous about this whole ordeal until Jisung sends him a long text message one evening about how not inconspicuous he’s being. Paraphrased, it looks a little like this.

 

_Chan, over text: Why is Changbin not sitting with us at lunch anymore? Also he’s not texting me as much… What did Hyunjin do? *frown* It wasn’t me, was it?_

_Hyunjoo: Jisung-oppa, how come Hyunjin-oppa and Changbin-oppa don’t talk anymore? Did something happen? Changbin-oppa also gets really quiet at home when I talk about Hyunjin-oppa. I don’t want them to be sad! They’re supposed to fall in love. *frown* Oh! Here he comes. Quick! Pretend we’re playing catch._

_Felix in biology class: Yo… mate… Hyunjin’s gotta stop avoiding Bin-hyung like that. I can practically see his heart deteriorating every day in language class, and I don’t think that’s healthy. (Jisung: I KNOW. I’M WORKING ON IT.)_

_Hyunjoo, again, this time coloring in a page of her superheroes coloring book: Mom is picking me up more now, and whenever I ask her where Changbin-oppa is, she just says he’s not feeling too well and is too tired._

_Minho whispering at lunch: Tell Hyunjin to stop being a little bitch baby and just GET HIS MAN. I’m sick of this. *grimace*_

_Seungmin, after school: Is Hyunjin okay?_

_Yeji, tucking her baby doll into bed: Hyunjin-oppa looks so sad all the time. I think he’s trying to pretend that he’s happy, but he’s really not! I’m gonna go draw a picture for him. Of a llama!_

_Changmin, tearing up: Yeji told me that Hyunjin-hyung’s sad… he can’t be sad…. *sniffles*_

_Chan, again, this time over cups of bubble tea: We just gotta… hope they figure it out. (Jisung: It’s hopeless.) (Chan: You’re right.) (They share despairing looks.)_

_HWANG HYUNJIN, PLEASE STOP BEING SO STUPID AND DRAMATIC. CHANGBIN-HYUNG DOES NOT THINK YOU’RE WEIRD. JUST GET HIS NUMBER AND WINE AND DINE HIM OR SOMETHING IDK._

 

Hyunjin holds down on the text and dislikes it, not bothering on sending an actual reply. He doesn’t plan on talking to Changbin any time soon, anyway.

The snow has already started melting into slush puddles littered across the street and the days have gotten considerably longer to the point where it isn’t pitch dark during dinner by the time Changbin shows up to the daycare, for the first time in a while, to pick up his sister.

Hyunjin doesn’t notice him at first, faintly registering the bell tinkling but too busy helping baby Jihoo blow her nose. He’s walking to the trash can, fingers gripping to the tiny unused corner of the tissue, when Jisung calls out, “Jinnie, can you get that? I gotta take Hyungseo for a diaper change.” He’s got Hyungseo in his arms, resting on his hips, and Hyunjin completely forgets that it’s almost three thirty, so he washes his hands quickly before heading toward the play area doors.

And there Changbin is, oddly standing out against the pastel lobby with his almost all-black outfit, hands in his pockets and once again admiring the children’s artwork. Hyunjin pauses for a split-second, cursing Jisung in his head for being so nonchalant in his sneaky plan to make him talk to Changbin while also recovering from _seeing Changbin_ , before taking a deep breath and opening the door.

After all, Hyunjin was taught to face his fears like a man. (Even though that statement is completely sexist. Thanks for nothing, elementary school teachers.)

•

Changbin hears the door open, slowly turning his head and expecting to see Jisung. Except… the six-foot, light brown-haired boy is definitely not Jisung.

One hundred and one thoughts fly through Changbin’s head at that moment, including but not limited to: _Mom told me Jisung was helping her check out Hyunjoo the entire time… Why is Hyunjin here now? Why does Hyunjin look so good? Why do I look like I walked out of Hot Topic? That’s actually terrible. Didn’t Chan-hyung say Hyunjin was into me?  Why is Hyunjoo just looking at me and not coming out here? Hyunjoo, please come out here. This is so awkward—_

That last one is cut off by Hyunjin speaking, words barely reaching Changbin’s head.

“Uh, what?” Changbin mutters, eloquently.

Hyunjin scratches his ear. “I said that, uh, it’s been a while, hyung,” he repeats, scrambling for the flower clipboard. Changbin takes some solace in the fact that the awkwardness is definitely a two-way street.

“Ah… it has,” is all Changbin can say in response. Hyunjin starts clicking the pen over and over again. Changbin hates that.

“I’m gonna go get Hyunjoo,” Hyunjin says after six clicks, louder than necessary, putting the clipboard down and clicking the pen closed. He’s a few steps away from the play area when Changbin blurts out, “Wait! Um.”

(Don’t ask Changbin what possessed him to do that. He wouldn’t know either.)

Hyunjin spins around slowly, seemingly equally as surprised as Changbin. “Yeah?” He tilts his head and Changbin feels his heart tilt and almost fall over.

“Um,” he repeats. Deep breath. “Can I, maybe… have your number? Chan-hyung mentioned it, and the two of us haven’t been talking much at school, so I figured then we could talk outside of school? I don’t know, you don’t have to if you don’t want to; it was just a weird idea I had…” Changbin says all of this incredibly fast, eyes flitting from Hyunjin’s eye freckle to the picture of the rainbow and birds hanging by the clock to Hyunjoo still just _sitting there_ in the play area, seemingly having fun watching her brother and Hyunjin interact. Jisung probably has something to do with that, as he often does.

Hyunjin, on the other hand, seems amused at how quickly Changbin spoke, even though his face is completely red. “No wonder Chan keeps praising your rapping skills,” he comments. “And I suppose that wouldn’t be a terrible idea?”

Changbin feels like he’s on cloud 9. Okay, no, that’s so cheesy, but he feels like he could conquer the world. Isn’t asking Hyunjin for his number basically the same thing? He pulls his phone out of his pocket and hands it to Hyunjin, hyperactive of how sweaty his hands are and how Hyunjin definitely deliberately touched his hand when he grabbed it. By the time he gets his phone back and processes Hyunjin’s contact name, complete with the nickname _Hyunjinnie!:)_ , Hyunjin is opening the doors to the play area and calling Hyunjoo’s name.

On the bus ride back home, Hyunjoo again sitting on Changbin’s lap, she speaks up. “Hyunjin-oppa’s face was so red when he came to get me today! Are you guys in love yet?”

Changbin shoves her one of her earbuds, switching to his Day6 playlist. “No. Don’t ask.”

“Your face is red too!”

•

Hyunjin and Jisung are back at their favorite coffee shop, each with a slice of cheesecake. Jisung sips on his latte and Hyunjin on his hot chocolate. It’s Saturday at noon, admittedly not the best time to be at a coffee shop considering the number of other customers here and how loud Jisung can be, but the lowkey atmosphere and artwork and R&B music is enough to keep the two coming back every weekend.

“So,” Jisung says, putting his cardboard cup down. “Why were you so red yesterday after talking to you-know-who?” He’s got that conspiring smile on his face, eyebrows raised and honestly, in Hyunjin’s opinion, looking ridiculous.

He takes another sip of hot chocolate, if anything to just keep Jisung in suspense, before answering. “He asked me for my number yesterday.” As soon as the words leave his mouth, Hyunjin raises a finger to his lips as quickly as possible and hisses out a warning.

Too late, though, because Jisung somehow reacted even faster and throws his arms in the air. “YES!”

Once again, the entire store looks in their direction, and Hyunjin rests his forehead in his palm. “Gosh, Sungie. It isn’t _that_ big of a deal.”

“It is too!” he protests, lowering his voice slightly. “It’s been for _ever_ since you guys started dancing around each other.”

“It’s been less than two months,” Hyunjin points out. “Oh God. _It’s been less than two months,_ ” he repeats. He hasn’t had a crush that fast since seventh grade.

“Now that,” Jisung giggles, “is whipped culture.” He opens the lid of his latte, looking somewhat disappointed. “Too bad all the whipped cream is melted. Did my super long text about all the reasons you were being stupid help?”

Hyunjin stabs his cheesecake with a plastic fork. He hates admitting that Jisung is right. “Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t,” he settles on, sticking his nose in the air petulantly.

Jisung just does a little happy dance.

•

Perhaps Changbin gets a little too excited whenever Hyunjin texts him. Perhaps Changbin began wearing bright colored clothing again. And perhaps Chan thinks that he’s hopeless, and Changbin tries to convince him that he’s being a _little_ dramatic, but Changbin also kind of agrees.

The thing is, Changbin is still inclined to believe that Hyunjin is too pretty to be not-straight, despite everything that Chan tells him during third period and everything that Jisung whispers to him at lunch.

“Changbin-hyung, he is the epitome of twink culture,” Jisung hisses in his ear a few weeks after Changbin and Hyunjin had exchanged numbers. “Have you seen him dance?”

Changbin flushes all the way down his neck. “He dances?” he hisses back, equally hushed. Hyunjin is sitting at the other end of the lunch table today, talking to Woojin about some sort of project they have in physics.

“Oh, does he _dance,_ ” Jisung grins, eyebrows wiggling. “He, Felix, and Minho-hyung all lead the dance team! It’s hot.” At that point, Jisung looks across the table and doesn’t try to hide the heart-eyes he sends to Minho. Changbin gags internally.

He looks over at Hyunjin, who’s unceremoniously shoving a dumpling into his mouth, and feels a laugh bubble up from his chest. “ _He_ dances? He’s as graceful as a drunk ostrich,” he mutters, thinking about all the times Hyunjin had accidentally tripped over nothing while rushing to grab the clipboard or skipping to the play area.

“Fair,” Jisung says, tearing his eyes away from Minho and turning back to Changbin. “but I’m telling you. He is so not-straight.”

Hyunjin drops a dumpling onto the ground. He picks it up, brushes it off, eats it, and says “yuh” around his food. Woojin leans over the table to slap at Hyunjin’s shoulder.

Changbin grimaces. “Whatever you say.”

A few days later, when Changbin is picking up Hyunjoo from the daycare, but she’s just sitting inside the play area again so really he and Hyunjin are just talking, Jisung’s point is proven.

“Your sister is so adorable,” Hyunjin gushes, writing the time down on the clipboard. “She always helps put away her toys when she’s done without Jisung or me asking her to.” He puts the pen back into the cute pencil holder and moves the clipboard to the side. Changbin is about to thank Hyunjin when he continues, and oh how Changbin wishes he had cut Hyunjin off. “Not as adorable as you, though.”

He’s got a clean pinstripe blue button down on, half tucked into black jeans, and Changbin almost refutes and says something along the lines of “says you,” but he just forces out, “excuse me?”

“Hmm?” Hyunjin asks, seemingly unaware of Changbin’s internal conflict. “I said, hyung, that she’s not as adorable as you. Although you guys both inherited some very cute genes.” He waves at Hyunjoo through the glass doors. She waves back with too much enthusiasm.

Changbin fiddles with his jacket zipper. Up, down, up down. “Thanks, I guess,” he says, voice filled with uncertainty. “You’re pretty—” cough, “—adorable. Also.” He takes a tiny step towards the play area.

Hyunjin doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, and Changbin is about to make a break for the play area, but suddenly Hyunjin blurts out, “wannagetcoffeethisweekend?” and stands up a little straighter behind the counter. “Unless you’re busy. Then it’s okay.” He takes a tiny step towards the play area as well.

Changbin’s pulse goes a little crazy. “I. Yeah. I’m free.” He moves his hand from the zipper to his pocket and can immediately feel his palms begin to sweat inside his jacket pocket, even though the building is adequately heated. Changbin doesn’t even drink coffee. Or tea. He prefers good old water.

Hyunjin just grins in response, the big one that crinkles his eyes up all tiny and reveals his pretty teeth, and Changbin wants to kiss him. Uh oh.

When Changbin and Hyunjoo walk outside into the almost-spring air and Hyunjin waves them goodbye, what Changbin doesn’t know is that Hyunjin immediately flops over onto the front desk, and Jisung yells, “Jinnie! Stop being mushy and come help me out here!”

•

 _“Hyunjin-ah… I was talking with Changbin a few weeks ago. He asked me how I manage to stay awake all the time while getting no sleep and doing a thousand things at once, so I told him caffeine, and he responded by saying that he doesn’t like coffee or tea. So I asked him how he stays awake when he’s busy and he just said water,”_ Chan’s muffled voice says over the phone after Hyunjin had excitedly called him to tell about his date(!!!) with Changbin. Although he never specified that it was a date, so there’s that. Jisung tells him that Changbin is a dense brick. Whoopsies.

Hyunjin doesn’t respond for a few seconds, shoving the side of his face deeper into his pillow.

_“Hyunjin?”_

“Oh! I’m here, hyung. I’m fine. I think. Oh, God. What do I do?”

_“Just text him, silly. You’re gonna be okay.”_

“Okay, okay. What do I say?”

Chan giggles. _“You’re so flustered, Jinnie. It’s cute. Just tell him that I told you all that, and you want to change plans to something else. Make sure you mention that it’s a date, though.”_

“Uhh…” Hyunjin fumbles about, putting Chan on speaker and typing up a text only to delete it over and over again. “Okay, how’s this: ‘Hi Binnie-hyung! Chan-hyung told me that you don’t drink coffee or tea, so we could change our date plans to something else? What do you wanna do?’ Oh my goodness, hyung. It’s really a date.”

There’s a pause before Chan’s answer comes. _“Uh, don’t add that last part,”_ he says, sounding concerned. Hyunjin can practically imagine his face, eyebrows scrunched up and eyes soft.

“Jeez, hyung, I’m not that stupid!” Hyunjin whines.

 _“Didn’t think so,”_ is Chan’s sarcastic response.

“Shut up, hyung. I’m doing better in physics than Woojin-hyung is, and—Oh! He’s typing.”

_“Hm?”_

Hyunjin screams. “HYUNG. He says, ‘Date?’ Ugh. Jisung was right.”

Chan just laughs. _“No freaking way,”_ he manages. _“That’s amazing.”_

“Stop. No it’s not!” Hyunjin continues to whine. “Why does he not know how to take a hint? He says, ‘Date. Right. I don’t really know? We can go on a walk? There’s this park near my neighborhood.’ Did he really not know that I was asking him on a date when I asked him out to coffee?”

_“Hyunjin, he thought you were straight for the longest time. Probably still does.”_

And in all honesty, Chan’s got him there.

•

It’s the next day, and Changbin has almost completely recovered from his reeling shock at Hyunjin’s prospect for a “date.” It turns out that Jisung was right, and Changbin should’ve expected that—seeing as he and Hyunjin have been friends for years—but Changbin refuses to admit his obliviousness.

Hyunjin had been driving him to the daycare after school for a while now (Changbin’s mom was _extremely_ excited by the fact that Changbin had a friend, and one that could drive and get along with Hyunjoo nonetheless), so Changbin figures everything will be the same, even after Hyunjin asked him out.

Of course they wouldn’t though. That was a stupid assumption from the beginning.

Changbin stops by his locker after sixth period to grab his statistics textbook and begins walking down the hall, completely forgetting that Hyunjin has also made it a habit to wait for Changbin after school, too.

“Hey, hyung,” Hyunjin greets cheekily from behind Changbin, head leaning dangerously close to his.

“Jeez!” Changbin exclaims, jerking his head away. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.” He puts a scowl on his face, but he knows it’s not intimidating whatsoever, and Hyunjin just giggles and falls into place next to Changbin.

“Sorry, hyung. Didn’t know you were so soft and cowardly under that dark look of yours.”

“I’m _changing,_ Hyunjin,” Changbin grunts. “Haven’t you noticed the amount of color in my wardrobe recently?”

Changbin tries to pretend that Hyunjin’s nonchalantness isn’t bothering him and tries to be the same way. But no one can blame him for feeling weird that his-crush-who-asked-him-out-yesterday is acting as if nothing even happened. Changbin pushes open the door, holding it for Hyunjin. He breathes in the cool spring air, forcing himself to shake off that strange feeling.

“Aw,” Hyunjin coos. “Changing your wardrobe after you met me?”

Changbin punches his shoulder. Lightly. “No, you dumbass.” Hyunjin still collapses and groans dramatically while clutching his shoulder, attracting the attention of too many people around them.

“That hurt, hyung,” he whines, looking up behind those (damn) eyelashes. “Kiss it better.”

“Stop lying. No.” And Changbin tries to speed walk to Hyunjin’s car, but he forgets that his legs are a good six inches shorter than Hyunjin’s, at the least, and Hyunjin doesn’t need to make much of an effort to speed walk past him.

In the car, the two fall silent, as they normally do. And normally it’s not awkward. Normally, they listen to Hyunjin’s K-R&B playlist and Changbin stares out the window while Hyunjin sings and drives with his right hand at twelve and his left hand leaning on the door. Normally, Changbin just sits back, breathes in Hyunjin’s scent (is that weird?), and relaxes.

But today is abnormal.

Changbin can feel this lingering pressure of whether or not to bring up the date, and he grows uneasy as the minutes tick by. There’s some song by Crush playing in the background that Changbin doesn’t recognize. The trees whiz by at forty miles an hour, tiny buds of green _barely_ visible against the still dead-brown trunks. The sky is clear and the sun is out. But there Changbin is, sitting in his friend’s(?) car, bouncing his leg up and down as Hyunjin hums along to crush quietly.

Hyunjin seems to be feeling the uneasiness also, Changbin thinks. Normally, Hyunjin’s also headbanging and over-exaggeratedly belting the lyrics loudly to even the softest of songs while Changbin watches, happiness bubbling in his chest. But today, Hyunjin is barely even humming, eyes trained on the road at all times rather than his usual occasional glances at Changbin between singing.

Maybe the cars on the road are particularly interesting today.

Suddenly, though, when the daycare is a stoplight and a left turn away, Hyunjin yells, “PUPPY!” and Changbin immediately looks around, spotting a small Bernese mountain dog on a walk, excitedly tugging its owner back and forth.

And somehow, just like that, things are almost back to normal. Except for when Changbin holds the door for Hyunjin on the way inside and Hyunjin mutters a, “thank you, angel,” but no one has to know about that one.

(Jisung gives him absolute _shit_ for his date with Hyunjin—while Hyunjoo is with them, mind you—and Hyunjoo squeals the entire bus ride about telling their mom about “Changbin-oppa’s boyfriend!” Thanks for nothing, Jisung.)

•

It’s early Saturday afternoon, there’s a slight breeze blowing, and sunlight easily makes its way past the near-bare branches.

Changbin sits on a wooden bench by a fountain a short walk into the park, shaking his leg while trying not to check his phone every fifteen seconds. There are plenty of other people milling around, a few with dogs and children, enjoying the oddly sunny day in early spring. Changbin tries to relax, but Hyunjin said he would be there at two, and it’s already six after. There’s this irrational fear that _maybe I’m getting stood up,_ but Changbin thinks back to the amount of times Jisung has complained about Hyunjin being “too mushy” and “not straight” and forces himself to believe that Hyunjin’s just running late.

And running he is.

Hyunjin barrels through the park entrance a few minutes later, hair flying in all directions and as quickly as his long legs can take him. “Changbin-hyung!” he yells, voice shaking as he takes one thunderous step after another. People nearby glance over at the commotion, but Hyunjin doesn’t seem to care. “Sorry I’m late,” he huffs out between breaths. “Kkami was being annoying and wouldn’t pee—and, yeah.” He runs a hand through his hair before taking a seat to Changbin’s left.

Changbin lets out a breath. “It’s okay,” he settles on, noting that Hyunjin scooted the slightest bit closer to him while catching his breath. Did he really sprint? How extra.

“You look nice today, hyung,” Hyunjin suddenly comments between breaths, making eye contact with Changbin.

Changbin stills. “Thank you, Hyunjinnie,” he manages out. “You do, too.” There’s an _as always_ floating in the back of his mind, almost pegging itself on to the end of his statement, but Changbin forces it down. (Also, he doesn’t want to say he tried to put a nice outfit together… but he really did. The things cute boys do to you.)

Hyunjin grins, a little lopsided, before dramatically pushing himself off of the bench. “Wanna walk?” he asks, pointing towards a small, empty trail.

And so they walk, side by side, mindlessly through the quiet trail and talk about everything and nothing at all. They talk about Hyunjin’s dog, Jisung’s habits of talking too loudly, Changbin’s parents’ jobs, Hyunjoo’s drawings, and every tiny detail in between.

They talk about how maybe Chan might have a thing for Woojin, how maybe Hyunjin’s table partner in his third period sends heart eyes to Felix, and how maybe Jisung told Hyunjin that Changbin thought he was straight.

“He _what?_ ” Changbin blanches.

“Huh?” Hyunjin answers, seemingly equally confused for a split second. “Oh! He said you thought I was ‘too pretty to not be straight.’” He giggles, over-exaggerating his air quotes and skipping along the trail happily.

“Calm down, Hyunjin. You’re gonna fall over,” Changbin mutters from a few steps behind him. “It’s not my fault I happened to fall for the prettiest boy in the whole school.”

Hyunjin twirls around, creating dancing shadows on the dark trail. “What’dya say, hyung?” He’s got this massive grin on his face (he always gushed about how much he loved sunny days), and when Changbin doesn’t answer, he continues. “You don’t think that still, do you?”

Changbin catches up to Hyunjin. “Not the straight part,” he admits. “But I’m never letting Jisung know that he was right.”

Hyunjin laughs a little before he pauses. “So, you still think I’m pretty?” He asks this question with an innocent tone, as if he genuinely doesn’t think the answer is a resounding _yes._

“Uh, of course I do,” Changbin says, looking everywhere but Hyunjin. “I’d be a fool if I didn’t think that.”

Hyunjin blushes the same color as the little patch of pink pansies they walked by earlier. “Thanks, hyung. For the record, though, I think you’re even prettier.” Again, Changbin is taken aback by how _unadulteratedly_ Hyunjin speaks, like he’s completely unaware of his own attributes. Changbin kind of hates that, but he’s realizing now that there are a lot of little things that set him off.

“Don’t speak nonsense,” he says in response. Hyunjin is about to argue, so Changbin cuts him off. “Even so, you’re much prettier on the inside, and that’s what matters.”

Hyunjin giggles. Loudly. “Didn’t know you knew what my insides looked like, hyung,” he says, way too cheekily.

Changbin turns _very_ warm. “ _Brat!_ ” he hisses, smacking Hyunjin on the shoulder. “You know what I mean.” He covers his face with his hands as Hyunjin’s laughter subsides.

Out of nowhere, Hyunjin grabs Changbin’s hand and laces their fingers together. “I know, hyung. Thank you.” He says this with the purest smile on his face, and Changbin’s heart turns to mush. But then Hyunjin says “I can’t believe you slapped me again. Kiss it better.” And Changbin says “no kisses on the first date.” And Hyunjin sort of malfunctions, and then that’s that.

•

Of _course_ the two of them end up at the coffee shop again, both sipping on hot drinks and eating desserts, Jisung firing question after question about the date.

“So!! What happened?” His eyes are wide open and curious, and Hyunjin imagines that if he were a comic book character, he would have that white sparkle in both eyes.

“We went on a walk,” Hyunjin answers, drawing out his response with intermittent sips of his drink, if only to annoy his best friend. Thankfully, it’s late afternoon on a Sunday, and most people are enjoying family dinners or are at their local churches. The less people bothered by Jisung’s wild tendencies, the better.

“Mm-hmm. And?”

“And we talked.”

“Yup. And?”

“We pet some dogs.”

“Okay, cute. And?”

“I held his hand.”

“OH!” Jisung almost screams, slamming his drink as violently as a paper cup allows him to. “That’s more like it.”

Hyunjin rolls his eyes, _hard_ , and finishes off his scone. “Hand-holding. The epitome of high school relationships,” he scoffs. He tries not to think about how Changbin’s smaller, stronger hand fit right into his bigger one.

“Anything more than hand-holding?” Jisung stage whispers, figurative white sparkles in his eyes growing larger. “Any lip-touching? Making out?” He counts on his fingers. “Getting it on behind the cover of some trees and bushes?”

Hyunjin regards him with a look of disgust. “You’re _so weird_ ,” he says under his breath, before continuing, “no, he said ‘no kisses on the first date.’ Let alone anything else, jeez, Sungie.”

Jisung falls silent, nodding as if deep in thought. He puts his hand under his chin and everything, and Hyunjin can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous his best friend is being. “Ah!” he suddenly says. “Did Changbin-hyung mention anything about the next date?”

(Here’s some context: Hyunjin had asked Changbin out on the first date. Jisung’s logic was that no matter _how badly_ Hyunjin wanted to ask him on another, Changbin _had_ to do it. “If he doesn’t, then he’s too much of a coward to date you!” Jisung reasoned, sticking his nose up in the air. Hyunjin’s still not sure if he agrees or not, so he just lets Jisung be.)

Hyunjin takes another slow sip of his drink. “Well, I drove him home ‘cause he lives a block away from the park. And when he walked out he said thanks, and that he would text me? Does that count?” Hyunjin purposely leaves out the part where he had his left hand at twelve and his right hand holding Changbin’s over the center console. A good change from his normal left-on-door and right-at-twelve.

Jisung nods animatedly during the whole story. “Well, did he text you?”

“Yeah, but not anything about a date…”

Jisung frowns. “Give him a few days. Maybe he’ll text you to hang out over the weekend?”

Hyunjin purses his lips and nods.

A few moments of silence tick by before Jisung’s phone _ping_ s, and Hyunjin leans over to read his text. Because that’s what best friends do.

It’s a text from _Changaroo-hyung_ , and despite how innocent it is, sitting on Jisung’s phone’s lock screen, it makes Hyunjin almost yell.

 _changbinnie just asked me for jinnie’s address hehe_ , it reads. Jisung, realizing that Hyunjin actually _saw_ the text, snatches his phone up to type out a response.

“He _what_?” Hyunjin splutters. “My address?”

Jisung holds his phone right up to his own face while clicking away at it furiously, as if Hyunjin would try to grab it out of his hands. “Don’t worry ‘bout it,” he snickers, before turning off his phone and sliding it into his sweatshirt pocket.

Hyunjin scowls and sips at his drink angrily. _“‘Don’t worry ‘bout it,’”_ he mocks. “I’m gonna worry, Sungie. You can’t stop me.”

Jisung smiles, probably trying to look non-threatening, but it only deepens Hyunjin’s frown. “Trust me, Jinnie. Don’t worry! Good things come to those who wait.” He winks. “Aristotle said that.”

Hyunjin can’t decipher whether Jisung is joking or not, because he knows for a fact that the quote is from a United States Heinz Ketchup ad from the 1980s. Felix, ever the ketchup enthusiast, had happily commented about that quote at their last friend group outing.

•

Chan, Jisung, and even Seungmin—whom Changbin has talked to less times than he can count on his fingers—all ask him how the date went. Chan seems genuinely invested, Jisung won’t stop wiggling his eyebrows, and Seungmin mentions it in passing during lunch. The conversations go a little like this:

 

Chan: So, how was the date with Hyunjinnie?

Changbin: Good.

Chan: You thinking about asking him out anytime soon?

Changbin: Probably. I’m not sure when, though.

Chan: Aw! Best of luck, Binnie.

 

Jisung: Hyungggg!

Changbin: Yes?

Jisung: How was the daaaaate?

Changbin: Stop doing that with your eyebrows. You look ridiculous. And it was fine.

Jisung: Is there gonna be a second date?

Changbin: I’m working on it.

Jisung: *incomprehensible noises*

 

Seungmin: Oh. You went on a date with Hyunjin, right?

Changbin: Mm-hmm.

Seungmin: Ah. It went well?

Changbin: Yup.

Seungmin: Is that fried rice? I love eggs.

 

So at this point, Changbin isn’t really sure what to do. He’s currently swamped under his multiple AP classes and having to watch over Hyunjoo over the weekends _and_ finding a good way to ask Hyunjin out for a second date. (And maybe ask him to be his boyfriend too, while he’s at it.)

As it stands, Changbin knows Hyunjin’s address, and is considering just showing up at Hyunjin’s door one day and hoping he’s home, and then sweeping him off of his feet and professing his love over—over what, he hasn’t figured out yet, but he’ll get there.

Hyunjoo thinks it’s an excellent idea.

“You’re gonna date him, oppa?” she squeals one day after Changbin brings her home from _Golden Smiles Daycare._ She’s laying on his bed, hugging his Munchlax plushie close to her chest.

“I’m hoping so,” he answers, pulling his homework out of his backpack.

“Ooh! That’s exciting. Is he the first boyfriend you’ve had?”

Changbin smiles a little. “He’s not my boyfriend yet, silly goose. But if he says yes, then he will be.”

Hyunjoo considers this answer. “Have you ever had a girlfriend?”

“You don’t remember?” he laughs. “I dated a girl during freshman year, once.”

Hyunjoo sits up. “I didn’t know you could like both girls and boys.”

“You’ll learn about this as you grow up, little sis. Just know that it’s perfectly okay.” Changbin ruffles his little sister’s hair, heart warming when she begins giggling.

It’s quiet for a moment before Hyunjoo speaks up again. “You should take Hyunjin-oppa on a picnic!” she suggests. “Picnics are so fun. I wanna make a ton of new friends so we can all go on picnics together.”

And just like that, his plan is finished. He’ll ask his dad to use the car, take Hyunjin on a picnic, and hopefully be his boyfriend by the end of it.

•

It’s kind of funny how Changbin seems to be extra nervous the entire week when picking up Hyunjoo.

“He’s got big plans this weekend,” is all Hyunjoo whispers to him in the play area. She refuses to say more but keeps a sneaky grin on her face.

So Hyunjin waves the Seo siblings off Friday afternoon, heart sort of twisting at the fact that Changbin hadn’t hinted toward a second date the entire week.

Jisung tries to convince him that _he’s probably super busy_ and _you never know what will happen_ and Hyunjin tries to appreciate his friend’s effort, he really does, but he just wants Changbin to date him already.

But Changbin _had_ asked for his address, and Jisung _was_ hiding something, as was Hyunjoo, so Hyunjin allows his hopes to inch up little by little.

Hyunjin startles awake at—he rubs his eyes and glances at his wall clock—11:34 in the morning to his phone incessantly buzzing on his nightstand. _Changbinnie-hyung_ , it reads, the threatening green answer-button flashing in his face.

It’s way too early on a Saturday morning to be dealing with this.

“Hello?” Hyunjin croaks out after accepting the call. “Do y’need something, hyung?” He rolls over and snuggles back under his blankets and hugs his llama.

_“I, uh, was wondering—wait. Did you just wake up?”_

(Hyunjin has never called Changbin before. Call him crazy, but it’s kind of wonderful, warm and cozy in bed while listening to his voice crackle over the phone speaker.)

“Yeah, but that’s okay. What were you wondering?” He yawns.

_“Ah… sorry to bother your sleep.”_

“It’s really okay, hyung. I should get out of bed anyway.”

 _“Okay, I suppose. Don’t you sleep with a llama plushy?”_ The question is asked uneasily, as if Changbin’s almost embarrassed to bring it up.

“You know I do, hyung!” Hyunjin giggles. “Just like I know you sleep with your Munchlax plushy.”

Changbin groans. _“You brat. At least I was up early,_ and _already got a workout in.”_

Hyunjin flushes. Of course Changbin wakes up early on Saturday mornings to work out. “Whatever, hyung. What did you need to ask anyway?”

Changbin stutters a bit before answering. _“I was just wondering if you had plans for lunch?”_

Hyunjin grins in a (minor) victory. “No, I was just gonna eat with my parents. Why?”

_“Well, stay home. But don’t eat.”_

“Gee, hyung. That sounds kinda suspicious to me.”

_“Hyunjin, you know what I mean—”_

“I’m kidding! Love you, hyung! And okay, I won’t eat. But my parents are yelling about how I woke up too late, so I gotta get dressed now! Bye bye.”

_“Love you too, Hyunjin. See you soon.”_

_•_

It’s a good thing that Changbin’s parents love Hyunjin, really, because Changbin’s not sure how well asking to borrow the car to pick up a boy on a date would’ve went otherwise.

(Probably very poorly, but he’s not going to dwell on that.)

Hyunjoo had excitedly helped him prepare the picnic lunch this morning after he came back from the gym—cut up strawberries, home-baked brownies, two cans of coke, chips, and fried chicken from Hyunjin’s favorite chain. (He got that information from Jisung.) His mom actually had a picnic basket in the basement for who knows what reason, and she had pulled out a cute polka-dotted blanket from the linen closet, which is all currently sitting on the kitchen island. His mother seemed extremely excited about the prospect of his son dating _the precious boy from the daycare_ , and went a little over-the-top making other finger foods for the two to share.

Changbin waits a while after the phone call ends, if only to give Hyunjin time to do whatever he does to his appearance that makes him look absolutely _ethereal_ every time he sees him at lunch (but also to calm his heart rate, which seems to be insanely high and probably not safe for his health).

He sits cross-legged on his bed and hugs his Munchlax close to his chest, pulling up his word game app in a half-assed effort to quell the nervousness in his chest.

 _YOU_ , he spells out. He can’t find the five letter word. _HUT_.

Really, installing this game was a half-assed effort to convince Felix that _yes, I’ll work on my English skills_ , and Changbin forces himself to not make some sort of terrible analogy out of the game and his life.

(Game : Nervousness : : Changbin : Felix. He does it anyway.)

It takes a solid three minutes before he finally comes up with the word _YOUTH,_ and he vaguely remembers what it means from some bubblegum girl group song he heard years ago. He still looks it up though, to ensure that when he tells Felix about it he doesn’t make a fool out of himself, and kind of stills at the definition.

_The appearance, freshness, vigor, spirit, etc., characteristic of one who is young._

Changbin thinks that somehow this word fits him perfectly, that he’s never been this _ambitious_ about pursuing a crush, that maybe the idea of being with Hyunjin makes him braver than he’s ever been.

He shakes his head, laughing somewhat in a condescending manner at himself. It’s funny how much he’s changed.

•

Hyunjin checks his hair in the mirror just _one last time_ as Changbin knocks on the door, rustling it this way and that. Whatever. He’ll deal.

He only got out of bed over half an hour ago, and had hastily thrown on a nice button down tucked into some skinny jeans and quickly patted his face with concealer to hide some angry spots popping up. Honestly, he could’ve done so much more with his appearance had he not spent the first few minutes after he hung up processing the fact that _this is the second date_ , but he’s stuck with what he’s got now, so he grabs his phone and sprints downstairs.

Now, Hyunjin is a strong man.

Jisung would say otherwise, but that’s because Jisung is a little shit who likes to hide around corners and behind counters to scare the living daylights out of Hyunjin.

(Actually, all of Hyunjin’s friends would say otherwise, because he has a tendency to cry. Very easily.)

But really! Hyunjin is a strong man! Physically _and_ emotionally. In reality, anyone would pass out seeing Changbin at their doorstep holding a bouquet of flowers. Hyunjin can’t be blamed for this.

Because when he opens the front door, there Changbin is, shyly holding on to a bouquet of pastel pinks and yellows and whites, wearing an adorable fluffy sweater, round framed glasses resting on his nose, and Hyunjin actually tears up a little bit.

“Are those for me?” he asks, like a complete idiot, because—

“Who else would they be for?” Changbin’s got this amused look on his face.

Hyunjin flounders. “Well—I. Yeah, that’s fair,” he mumbles, turning pink. “Thanks, hyung. You didn’t have to.” He gingerly takes the flowers from a Changbin’s hands, taking a sniff. His heart warms.

“I know. I wanted to,” is Changbin’s answer, and Hyunjin kind of freaks out. He’s never been this nervous around his crush. _Ever_.

With the flowers resting in his mother’s favorite vase, Hyunjin runs out the front door and settles into the passenger seat of Changbin’s car. It’s a little strange, being in the car together and not being behind the wheel, but Hyunjin enjoys it nonetheless. There’s something oddly domestic and comforting about seeing Changbin hum along to whatever song’s playing and tapping his hands against the wheel to the beat. Out of desire for habit, he taps Changbin’s right wrist.

“Hm?” Changbin looks over for a quick second, smiling at him.

“Nothing,” Hyunjin says before lacing their hands together. Changbin just laughs lightly. “Where are we going, hyung?”

Changbin squeezes his hand. “Surprise.”

Hyunjin huffs. “Fine.”

The surprise, as it turns out, is a little picnic in the park near Hyunjin’s neighborhood, and the moment when Changbin steps out, pops the trunk, and reveals a picnic basket and blanket is so _utterly perfect_ that Hyunjin wishes he had known about this whole ordeal earlier and grabbed his mom’s nice DSLR camera. For now, though, a mental snapshot will do. Changbin’s grinning all bashfully in it and Hyunjin’s head spins.

Hyunjin does end up taking photos on his phone of when Changbin lays the food out, and sends them to Jisung on instinct. Which was probably a terrible idea, but he’ll live through it. (Only later, when Jisung replies in a myriad of all-caps, terrible reaction memes stolen from twitter, and the occasional audio message of him _shrieking_ , will Hyunjin admit that he was wrong.)

Changbin catches him, and simply pulls out his own phone to take a photo of Hyunjin. “That’s my new home screen,” he says jokingly, only because Hyunjin, caught off guard, had made a pretty ridiculous expression. There’s a fleeting moment where Hyunjin entertains the idea of Changbin actually having him as his wallpaper, _‘cause that’s what couples do_ , but he tamps that down before he can get too carried away.

It’s so easy to get lost in the presence of his favorite food and the smell of spring and _Changbin_ that Hyunjin, being the bonehead he is, almost blurts out the idea of being boyfriends. On accident.

Thank goodness he has a finer filter on his words than Jisung does, because if he wants to ask Changbin to be his boyfriend, then he’s gotta do it right.

Time seems to not matter (there’s Jisung’s voice in his head yelling “Time is a social construct! Screw the government!”) as it inevitably ticks by, and before Hyunjin knows it, the tupperware are empty and it’s almost one in the afternoon.

“That was really good; thank you, hyung,” Hyunjin comments kind of stupidly, because his parents raised him to always appreciate the little things (and because neither of them has said anything in a while and it’s getting a little awkward).

Changbin seems amused. “Of course. Hyunjoo and my mom were very excited to help me prepare this.”

Hyunjin perks up. “Hyunjoo! How’s my little angel doing?” He doesn’t miss the way Changbin’s expression visibly softens.

“She’s doing well,” he says. “She, uh, talks about you a lot.” He looks away, busying himself with putting the tupperware back into the basket. There’s something there, unsaid, that Hyunjin can sense floating around in the air. It’s a strange feeling.

But all he says is “ahh,” before hurriedly helping Changbin put things away.

Hyunjin really doesn’t want this date to end, and he has a feeling that Changbin doesn’t, either. So he lays face-up on the grass, and grabs Changbin’s hand and says, “C’mon, hyung! Let’s cloud gaze.”

Changbin snaps a photo of Hyunjin before he lays down next to him. “Cute,” he snickers.

They point out as many things as possible—turtles, letters, fish, even the Superman logo. “That’s kind of a stretch, hyung,” Hyunjin mumbles, squinting and tilting his head at various angles. “I don’t see it.”

“Look! The diamond is pointing that way and then the S is right there,” Changbin insists.

“Okay, hyung,” Hyunjin settles on, closing his eyes and feeling the slight breeze pass by. Changbin continues to point out shapes—leaves, sunglasses, things Hyunjin can’t even imagine could be formed out of clouds even if the universe _tried_ —unconsciously squeezing Hyunjin’s hand when he discovers a new shape. It’s absolutely adorable. Hyunjin can’t stop the grin growing on his face.

The clouds go from spotty to overcast after a while and there are predictions of a storm in the next hour when Changbin and Hyunjin decide to leave the park.

“Hyung,” Hyunjin giggles upon reaching his house, opening the passenger door as Changbin opens his. “You don’t have to walk me to my doorstep.”

“I know. I want to,” he says, closing his door. Hyunjin hides a smile. (‘Cause that’s what Changbin had said when he showed up spontaneously at the door with the bouquet of flowers.)

The neighborhood is quiet and they’re standing at the door, Hyunjin’s hand on the handle, neither of them talking or wanting to move.

Hyunjin knows what he wants, though.

He wants to ask Changbin to be his boyfriend. Or vice versa. Either situation would be fine.

He also wants to just grab Changbin and _kiss him_ , but they’re not boyfriends, they’re still just friends, because hell, neither of them have admitted their (glaringly obvious) feelings for the other.

But Hyunjin’s also kind of a wimp. It had taken way more courage than he would like to admit when he asked Changbin out on their first date. Or hangout, since he’s—as previously stated—a bonehead who doesn’t clarify things.

So he decides to count to ten in his head. If by then, Changbin hasn’t said anything, he’s cranking the door open and making a mad dash for his room because _his heart is beating so quickly but he can’t muster up the courage to do anything about it._

There’s terribly loud silence up until seven-two-three-four when Changbin finally speaks.

“Jisung said I had to do this.”

Hyunjin tilts his head, waiting for him to continue, but all Changbin does is open his mouth, close it, and tug at his hair in frustration.

“Hyung, what is it?”

Changbin looks at him. “Make my job easy, Hyunjinnie. You know what I have to do.”

And of course, logically, Hyunjin knows. Because Jisung had told him as well, that Changbin was probably going to ask him out soon. The problem is that now, while it’s actually happening, Hyunjin’s equal parts terrified and nervous compared to his unamusement while Jisung chatted his ear off.

“Ahh, I probably do?” Hyunjin mutters. He definitely does.

“You definitely do,” Changbin grunts. “And what do you think about it?”

Hyunjin almost whines out loud. God, that would’ve been terribly embarrassing. Instead, he says with as much calmness as possible, “I think that you should just do it.”

Changbin raises an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Just say it.”

And this has Changbin laughing. Hyunjin lets out a breath and stares at him. “What’s so fun—”

“Who said I was saying anything?” Changbin interjects. And then he comes closer— _oh goodness, he’s really close_ —wraps his hands behind Hyunjin’s neck, and leans his forehead on his.

Now Hyunjin whines. “Just kiss me already.”

So Changbin does. He leans his head up and touches his lips on Hyunjin’s gently, with barely any pressure, and pulls back, as if testing the waters.

Hyunjin pouts over-exaggeratedly. “Hyung.”

“Sorry for teasing,” Changbin chuckles softly, before actually kissing him, gently but still _there_ , and Hyunjin thinks that this is the best feeling in the world.

Realistically, they can’t exactly make out at the Hwangs’ doorstep, so Hyunjin pulls back when he needs a breath, reveling in how big Changbin’s pupils are, when Changbin finally says the words he’s been wanting to hear since the boy stepped into the daycare to pick his sister up for the first time.

“Be my boyfriend?”

•

Jisung thinks they’re gross.

But Jisung also hasn’t made any moves on Minho yet, so Hyunjin continuously holds that over his head.

“Shut up,” Jisung grumbles as he eyes the way Hyunjin cuddles into Changbin’s side. “Who invited you anyway?”

Really, no one did, because 3RACHA (a terrible name, if you ask Hyunjin, but Chan is unstoppable when he sees hot sauce bottles and has a burst of inspiration) had planned this to be a “completely uninterrupted day where we can drown in pages of mismatched lyrics and repeated-til-they-sound-like-nothing sample sounds.” (Jisung’s words.)

And Hyunjin was already at the Seos’ before the other two came over, and neither Changbin nor Hyunjoo had the heart to kick him out. “Well,” Chan had reasoned. “Hyunjin’s a talented kid. He’s got a good ear. We could use a fresh opinion when the three of us are completely drained of energy?”

In hindsight, this wasn’t Chan’s best idea.

He knows this, too, judging by the way he continually cranks up the volume on his sound-reducing headphones little by little as Jisung and Hyunjin’s arguing escalates.

“Why don’t you give me advice, then?” Jisung complains. He seems genuinely frustrated, and Hyunjin kind of feels bad for teasing him before remembering all the shit Jisung gave him before he and Changbin got together and decides that this is karma.

Changbin speaks up. “Jisung, you’re the main reason we’re together right now,” he points out, accompanied by Hyunjin, who’s laughing and looking up at his boyfriend like he’s got the answers to the universe.

“Blech,” Jisung says. And then he seems to realize the validity of Changbin’s statement. “Oh. You’re right.”

“Just project onto your lyric writing!” Hyunjin suggests as a complete joke, but Jisung takes it seriously anyway and begins scribbling furiously in his tattered leather notebook.

Changbin’s basement finally quiets down. Chan’s still got his headphones on, Jisung’s probably writing lyrics about love that are dripping with sap (Hyunjin regrets his suggestion), and Changbin’s _still_ keeping his notebook on the armrest of the couch, out of sight from Hyunjin.

“You’ll get to see these one day, Jinnie. Don’t worry,” Changbin reassures him with a pat to the head.

Surely enough, the lyrics, along with Jisung’s and Chan’s, eventually come in the form of a slow love song, nothing like 3RACHA has ever done before. (Hyunjin refuses to acknowledge Wow and NXT 2 U as real love songs. They’re just not.)

But this one most definitely is, and Hyunjin can hear every ounce of effort the three put into carefully crafting every rhyme and sound-mixing perfectly. The lyrics, although never explicit in whom they’re about, cleverly describe Hyunjin, Minho—Jisung gave up denying this claim long ago—and a boy who isn’t Woojin, because Chan tries to deny any feelings whatsoever, but it’s definitely Woojin.

“It’s really not!” Chan protests at lunch one day, squirming around in his seat. “They can be about anyone. It’s up to interpretation.”

Jisung munches on his chips, unconvinced. “Sure. And my lyrics weren’t about Minho-hyung.” Minho, blissfully unaware, sits at the other end of the table, chatting away with Jeongin.

Chan scowls and takes an aggressive bite of his sandwich. “At least I’m not gross and domestic like those two,” he comments, staring pointedly at Changbin feeding Hyunjin a bite of his noodles.

Changbin huffs. “You _wish_ you could do this with—hey!” Jisung elbows him.

It’s one of those rare moments where Chan looks at Jisung with appreciation.

•

Changbin walks into the daycare, having had taken the bus after meeting with one of his teachers after class, and approaches the front desk. He watches with amusement as Hyunjin entertains four children at once and can’t help but think he _really_ hit the jackpot this time; Hyunjin’s perfect at everything—from dancing, to the insane amount of selflessness in his heart, all the way down to the love he has for the children at his daycare. Changbin is content with just watching them through the play area doors, not bothering with knocking on the door.

Hyunjoo finally notices him and enthusiastically points him out to Hyunjin, who grins and walks out to meet Changbin.

“Hey, love,” Changbin grins, leaning over the counter to quickly kiss Hyunjin after he checks Hyunjoo out.

“Hey, yourself,” Hyunjin shoots back, eyes crinkling up into those little crescents that Changbin loves so much. The two walk into the play area—a new part of their routine, Changbin supposes—since Hyunjoo loves seeing them together all the time, and because the kids have gotten so used to seeing Changbin around that he always ends up staying for a while to play with them.

The kids also know that the two are dating, all surprisingly extremely supportive of their relationship. (“My parents don’t really like when two guys or two girls date,” Juyeon had said at one point. “But Changbin-hyung and Hyunjin-hyung are both so cool. What’s the problem?”) They especially love messing with them, trying to drag them together as if they were still two pining messes. It’s amusing, really, how innocent their minds are and how they collectively scream and squeal when Hyunjin does so much as kiss Changbin’s cheek.

•

Changbin can say now, confidently, that the countless hours of fretting over how to make friends and where to sit during lunch were all worth it. Because the culmination of his worry and uneasiness resulted in the feeling of Hyunjin laying next to him, arm wrapped around his torso, soft breath tickling his face as Hyunjin’s chest rises and falls, and Changbin really wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> ,,,yuh  
> thank you for reading through this whole mess! comments n kudos are appreciated  
> -a :)


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